I Read Comic Books discussion

Currently watching the series Gotham and it made me wonder what were people's favorite DC comic series? I'm hoping to get into them so excited to hear people's recs!

Unilke Marvel, I've never read DC regularly, so I'm also interested in opinions on the subject. One exception is the current, Eisner-winning Nightwing run.

(view spoiler)[Funny aside on the history of the Big Two in italy: I became a Marvel boy basically by chance, when Marvel Italia reunited titles previously scattered among three or four different publishers. Marvel Comics have been regularly in print ever since, even when Marvel Italia became/was bought by Panini Comics.
On the other hand, DC Comics always had adverse fortunes here. Published first by Magic Press, then by the Spanish Planeta... both of which failed. Panini Comics now has the rights to Marvel, DC and more besides. (hide spoiler)]

There's a ton of great DC comics out there. Kingdom Come is a great stand alone comic about a possible future DC where the heroes are older. It's by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.

There's a ton of great Batman runs. Grant Morrison and Scott Snyder immediately come to mind. I liked Tom King's recent run as well. Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale have made a bunch of celebrated Batman comics set in his early days. They also did Superman: A Man for All Seasons. Jeph Loeb also did a year long run on Batman with Jim Lee. The current Nightwing run by Tom Taylor is the best Nightwing's ever been. Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker also did good runs on Batman and then made Gotham Central which is a police procedural set in Gotham. It's awesome. Arkham Asylum.

There's a ton of awesome Vertigo comics, Sandman, Preacher, American Vampire, Doom Patrol, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing, 100 Bullets, Scalped, Animal Man, Astro City, The Books of Magic, Coffin Hill, Fables, DMZ, iZombie, Lucifer, Stardust, Northlanders, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Sweet Tooth, Transmetropolitan, Terminal City, The Wake, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina. These are all stand alone comics for the most part set outside of the normal universe and aren't superhero comics. Exceptions are things that just became adult versions of existing comics like Animal Man, Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol.

For Wonder Woman, I'd look at the New 52 run by Brian Azzarello. Greg Rucka, George Perez and Gail Simone also had very good runs.

Mark Waid's current Superman / Batman: World's Finest is really good and has a timeless quality to it. Anything you come across by Mark Waid is more than likely worth reading. Same Goes for Tom Taylor. I think those are DC's current best writers. Marv Wolfman and George Perez's Teen Titans is excellent for 80's comics. Same thing for John Byrne's Superman.

Grant Morrison's JLA is weird and bombastic, full of big ideas. For older Justice League Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis's Justice League is still hilarious with plenty of action. It can feel misogynistic now though. I'm sure there's a tom more I'm forgetting.

If I was just getting into comics now, I'd get a subscription to DC Infinite Ultra. It's a digital comics service. I think it's the easiest one to use. The Ultra tier gets you access to all of the Vertigo comics and there's even trades there which makes figuring out reading order much easier. Plus, you only have to wait a month for comics to hit the service. Marvel has one too, Marvel Unlimited. I'd recommend it too. It's just not quite as easy to use and you have to wait 3 months for comics to hit the app.

Also, check out your library Grace. I see you live in Novi. I used to live in Rochester Hills and they had a ton of graphic novels. Plus, you can order books from anywhere else in the state if your local library doesn't have it.

I don't know if it's still there but the Barnes and Noble in Rochester Hills would sell used graphic novels for $3-$5. I'd buy them on the cheap there all the time. It was a special extra large B&N where they'd do book signings and stuff and had a huge used book section.

My favorite current runs are
Nightwing (mentioned above), Tom Taylor
Wonder Woman by Tom King
G Willow Wilson’s incredible Poison Ivy run (if I was only going to recommend one thing this would be it)
And Birds of Prey, Kelly Thompson

As others have mentioned, you can get caught up nicely with the DCI/U app

As always, thanks for the insight. I thought the question concerned the main DC series; many Vertigo titles are classics. (but wasn't Astro City published by Image Comics?)


Not surprised that G. Willow Wilson did great work outside of Ms. Marvel too. I have a few questions about runs whose authors I have admired elsewhere. Are these good?

Aquaman: Andromeda, because of Christian Ward.
Batwoman Haunted Tides, because of J.H. Williams III.
Sideways and Teen Titans (volume 5), because of Kenneth Rocafort.

Chad wrote: "There's a ton of great DC comics out there. Kingdom Come is a great stand alone comic about a possible future DC where the heroes are older. It's by Mark Waid and Alex Ross.

There's a ton of grea..."

This is so amazing and comprehensive thank you!! And I'll have to check out the used section at Rochester Hills. I hope it's still there!

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "As always, thanks for the insight. I thought the question concerned the main DC series; many Vertigo titles are classics. (but wasn't Astro City published by Image Comics?)


Not surprised that [au..."

I was looking into reading Andromeda a few days ago but it has quite a bit of mixed reviews, I also wonder what everyone else's opinion on this one is.

a.g.e. montagner wrote: "As always, thanks for the insight. I thought the question concerned the main DC series; many Vertigo titles are classics. (but wasn't Astro City published by Image Comics?)"

Astro City did originally start at Image under the Homage comics imprint. It came over to DC when they bought Wildstorm from Jim Lee.

All of the Wildstorm comics are at DC now too. Even though Warren Ellis is persona non grata these days, he wrote some terrific comics that are now published by DC, Planetary and The Authority are two must reads for any superhero fan. Although I'd maybe hold off until you've read some more DC and Marvel to get what they are upending. The Authority actually begins when Ellis takes over Stormwatch. Just skip straight to the Ellis comics. The stuff before that is garbage. If you can find it the early Stormwatch trades include a crossover with Aliens that is maybe the best intercompany crossover ever created. It's not your typical crossover with characters dying and staying dead in it. He also wrote a 12 issue miniseries called Global Frequency that I just think is the best thing since sliced bread.

I forgot to mention Alan Moore before. His Swamp Thing is excellent. (It's also where John Constantine came from.) Watchmen was revelatory. Batman: The Killing Joke with Brian Bolland might be the best Batman comic ever. He also wrote WildCATS for about 10 issues and got his own imprint at Wildstorm, America's Best Comics. Top 10, Tom Strong and Promethea are all really good.

And then there's Geoff Johns, everything he does is magic as far as I'm concerned. Check out his really long Flash and Green Lantern runs, plus Aquaman and the Justice League, Batman: The Three Jokers, Batman: Earth One. Just anything with his name on it.

Not surprised that G. Willow Wilson did great work outside of Ms. Marvel too. I have a few questions about runs whose authors I have admired elsewhere. Are these good?

Aquaman: Andromeda, because of Christian Ward.
Batwoman Haunted Tides, because of J.H. Williams III.
Sideways and Teen Titans (volume 5), because of Kenneth Rocafort.

I think Wilson's Poison Ivy run is just OK. Ms. Marvel was much better. She also has written a pretty good Sandman comic and got started at Vertigo with a comic called Air.

Andromeda looks pretty but Ram V. has written better stuff like These Savage Shores.

That JH Williams Batwoman run is very good. It fizzles out though when he leaves the book because DC wouldn't let Batwoman get married. He also drew all of Promethea.

Sideways and Teen Titans are awful even if Kenneth Rocafort makes them look pretty. DC's publisher, Dan Didio, during the New 52 era tried to character assassinate all of the Teen Titans because he didn't like the 2nd generation of heroes. All of their comics then are awful. Scott Lobdell wrote most of them and that didn't help.

Sideways was part of this odd initiative where DC made clones of a bunch of Marvel comics and tried to put them in DC comics. All of them have been forgotten about. Sideways was their Spider-Man. Didio made a lot of stupid decisions when he was in charge.

I kind of like the Scott Lobdell/Kenneth Rocafort Teen Titans, and their Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Did Rocafort ever do Teen Titans? I just remember Brett Booth and his awful character designs. So. Many. Special. Effects. Everyone looked like Christmas trees with all of the lighting effects on the costumes. And then all of that Harvest nonsense.

Yes, he drew the first season (volume 1 and 2) of the 2014 series. I liked his work on The Ultimates for Marvel, though Al Ewing's writing also helped. And his art does look a lot like Brett Booth.

I'm aware that Wildstorm is now an imprint of DC, and incidentally Jim Lee is now a boss at DC.

I’m new to comics in general so I’ve been working my way through Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol. Both are riveting! Anything can happen. Excellent writing.

Those are great places to start Luke. There's a Rachel Pollack omnibus coming out next week of all the post Grant Morrison issues of Doom Patrol, well at least of that run. (There's been 4 or 5 other Doom Patrol series since the Vertigo one.) I haven't read those since they originally came out in the 90s.

The 80s one is pretty problematic, but I have such a soft spot for all iterations of Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld!